Meizu Pro 6 Review: The Best Phone Among Meizu Products

Meizu Pro 6 Review: The Best Phone Among Meizu Products

Meizu’s Pro line includes the manufacturer’s flagship smartphones for the year, together with the MX series, which offer very similar specs, but at more affordable prices. The latest model from the Pro series is the Meizu Pro 6. Today, I will tell Meizu Pro 6 Review, you can learn some details.

What’s in the box

Meizu Pro 6 is packaged in a large rectangular dark gray box with rounded corners, made of hard plastic. It has the Meizu logo on the lid and information about the model on its bottom. Inside there are two compartments. Meizu Pro 6 Review. On the left hand side is the device and below it, there’s an envelope with the user manual and the SIM tray pin. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The device has two variants in terms of packaging – with and without earphones. Our review unit is without earphones. Meizu Pro 6 Review. Their compartment is the one below the device.

On the right hand side are the Type-C to USB 2.0 cable comfortably attached to a circular cable holder and the wall charger. The latter has two flat pins and no grounding area, meaning it is the US NEMA-1 plug standard. It is used in the US, Canada and some Latin American countries. If you don’t reside in these areas, you will need an adapter for the plug.

Design

As has been the case with previous Meizu smartphones, the inspiration in terms of design is quite obvious at first glance. However, with the Pro 6, Meizu attempts to do things a little bit different and includes a few unique design elements, that allows for some separation from the design of the iPhone, and previous generation Meizu smartphones as well

The Pro 6 does come with a full metal unibody construction, with the aluminium used appearing to be of a higher quality grade. There are no sharp or flat edges on this phone, with the back curving in along the sides to meet the front. The antenna bands appear at the top and bottom on the back as well, but with a unique look that certainly hasn’t been seen before. The rear camera is actually HTC 10-esque in its appearance, below which can be found a 10 LED flash.

The volume rocker and power button are on the right side, and at the bottom is the headphone jack, USB Type C charging port, and single speaker unit, in a design that will be extremely familiar. In fact, the overall design of the Meizu Pro 6 will be rather recognizable, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Helping the well known design language is a high quality build that allows for the device to feel fantastic in the hand, and design is an aspect that most will consider to be a positive.

OS, UI and software

We have received the Meizu Pro 6 with a webshop ROM that had Google Play services pre-installed. We did, however, install the original FlyMe OS because we wanted to test and present the real UI. It turned out that our review unit is hardware-bound to the Chinese (domestic) FlyMe OS as we tried to install the global ROM version, but the device did not recognize it as valid. So, here it is – FlyMe OS 5.2.3.0A. This is the latest software version as we received it as an update on September 27th after installing the previous one. The A at the end of the software version means that it is the Chinese one. You can recognize the international versions of the Flyme OS by the G at the end. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The differences between both is mainly in the apps that are pre-installed. The Chinese version has many apps that are widely used locally and with the latest update, the number of pre-installed apps increased. FlyMe OS 5.2 builds upon the 5.1 version retaining many of its features and is deeply customized. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The lock screen contains only one shortcut – to the camera app. By default notifications and media apps appear on it, but you can switch this off. On the home screen you get a row of docked apps – Dialer, Browser, Messenger and Camera. Above it there are three rows of pre-installed apps and a weather-time-search widget, which can be removed or placed elsewhere on the screen. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The second screen showed eight pre-installed apps (Chinese) and the latest update added seven more. There’s no app tray, all apps appear on successive screens designated by letters in alphabetical order after the home one. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The Volume shade looks standard, but does not expand. It shows a corresponding volume level depending on where in the system you’re at. For example, if you’re listening to music, it will display the media volume, if you’re on the screen – it will display the system volume, and so on.

A long press on an empty space on the home screen activates the Widgets menu, which has three groups of options. The first is re-arranging of icons on the screens. The second provides a choice of wallpapers. The third one is the choice of widgets, which you can add to your home screen. Meizu Pro 6 Review. In order to access the list of running apps, all you have to do is swipe up from the bottom of the screen – either from the left or the right. The area above the home button is inactive in order to avoid touching the home button by mistake. There’s a Clear all function as well. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The Quick Settings shade appears after you swipe once from the top of the screen downwards. There are 16 toggles, a Settings icon, and a bar for the brightness level. When there’s a single notification, it appears attached below the toggles, however, if more notifications appear simultaneously, the Quick Settings shade is collapsed to a single row of toggles and expanding it needs a second swipe downwards. Meizu Pro 6 Review. Another interesting feature of the UI is the ability to capture a long screenshot. This happens when you press the volume and power buttons simultaneously and hold them pressed for a while.

The Settings menu looks very compact on the surface, but when you start browsing though it, you’ll discover a ton of options and customizations. It starts off with the Wireless & networks section, which is standard and holds no surprises. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The second main group of settings is the Sounds & notifications one, which lets you manage the Notification and the status bar, Sound and vibration, and the DND mode. The first subgroup of options includes apps notification management, Quick Settings toggles re-arrangement, and other related settings. Meizu Pro 6 Review. Besides the standard ringtones and sound notifications, the Sound and vibration group includes the four main types of volume, which are grouped in a Volume folder and there’s a Silent mode toggle for quick access. Meizu Pro 6 Review. Moreover, this section is where the Haptic feedback settings (whether it should be strong, normal, or gentle) are along with the Earphone control calibration. The DND mode is self-explanatory and even contains a scheduling option. System is the third and largest group of settings in the menu. Its first subgroup of options is the Personalization one, from where you can choose wallpapers, themes, font types, icon styles. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The second subgroups is Display and brightness. Its most interesting features are the adjustment of color temperature and color saturation (display mode). It also includes settings for the Eye-protection mode, which warms up (visually) the display for more comfortable reading at night or other low-light conditions. The Eye-protection mode can be scheduled as well. Fingerprint and security is the third subgroup and is not as extensive as expected. It lets you setup and manage fingerprint IDs, which is very easy, as well as manage the security control of your device (type of lock, app lock, etc).

The Security section also provides a Guest mode in case a friend or colleague wants to use your smartphone. Language and time settings are not very interesting, so we arrive at the fifth and last main group – Accessibility. For starters, it lets you activate various gestures, with which you can interact with the device and open various apps. Meizu Pro 6 Review. There’s a SmartVoice wake up function, which is a voice-recognizing feature that unlocks the smartphone once it recognizes your voice password. The SmartTouch is a floating dot and it serves as another means of navigation. Meizu Pro 6 Review. A tap on it means back, side up goes to the home screen, side down opens the notifications shared, and so on. You can change these properties to suite your preferences better. And now we arrive to the 3D Press settings. Depending on the strength with which you press the display you can preview content, display shortcuts or perform an operation. The picture below the settings is for testing the intensity of mPress. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The FlyMe laboratory includes two experimental features, the first being a type of game and the second – regarding the style of the UI. Under Accessibility you will also discover settings for the home button and more specifically – what happens if you tap and hold it and if you tap it while typing. Meizu Pro 6 Review. From this subgroup you can also adjust how the Home screen search should function, the Scheduled power on and off, and the Drive assistant, which people who have already used Meizu smartphones, should be familiar with. Meizu Pro 6 Review. It is a useful tool to interact with your smartphone safely, while you’re driving. There’s a separate section Accessibility, which equals the standard group of Accessibility settings in Android 6.0. It is followed by extremely extensive Developer options, and of course – the About Phone info, from where you can also monitor the storage and check for updates.

Chinese versions of FlyMe OS do not have Google Play services pre-installed. They contain an App Store, from which you can find the apps you need, or just use any other way you’re familiar with to download and install the desired apps. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The list of pre-installed apps includes Dialer and Contacts, Messenger, default Browser, Clock, Gallery, Music, Videos, Themes, Life, News, Security, App Store, Game Center, Weibo, WeChat, QQReader, several apps of online retailers, and other similar ones, mainly with content in Chinese. There’s a Flyme Tools folder as well, which contains the Calculator, Calendar, Files (explorer), Notes, Weather, Toolbox, Map, Update, EBook, AccountCenter, Recorder, Email, DownLoad, SmartVoice, UserSupport. The Dialer and Contacts is actually one app, but two different icons lead to the corresponding tab inside the app. It also includes a third function – Yellow Pages. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The File explorer is standard as in other UIs by Chinese manufacturers and is very convenient to use. The Messenger does what it is expected to do and has a keyboard with extended settings and functions for more convenient and fast typing. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The Notes app is very simple and you can choose from several offline and online templates. The default Browser is fast and easy to use. It offers a night mode, built-in ad blocker, incognito mode and no image mode for decreasing traffic.

The Calculator has three tabs for standard and scientific calculations as well as for currency and measurement converters. The Calendar is also very simple and easy to use. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The Clock app has four different tabs for the four functions. The Music app is explained in detail in the Audio section, but it follows the same structural logic, like all other custom apps. Meizu Pro 6 Review. So does the Videos one. Its home screen is like a hub to online and offline content with various settings. The SmartVoice and Voice Recorder are self-explanatory.

The Security app is rather extensive and provides various useful tools for software protection and performance optimization. These tools include a Cleaner, Accelerator, Data manager, Harassment Blocking, Permissions, Power, Files, and Anti-Virus. Meizu Pro 6 Review. They work at system level and monitor unstable operations, report potential threats to the Cloud for analysis and troubleshoot to prevent damage to the system. The Power tool is created to optimize battery performance and will be described in detail in the Battery section of this review. Optimizing system codes, compressing, preventing apps being activated by each other, smart allocation of memory between apps and other improvements make the device run smoother and faster. Meizu Pro 6 Review. There’s a Toolbox app as well, which contains a Flashlight, Mirror (activated front-facing camera), Compass, Level, Ruler and Magnifier (by using the rear camera). You cam also choose to place shortcuts to one, some or all of these on the home screen (suffice there is enough space on it). Meizu Pro 6 Review. The Themes app duplicates the Themes and Wallpapers groups of settings. It opens a home page, dedicated to themes and wallpapers and provides options for changing the current ones with themes and wallpapers that are already stored in the device or others, which have to be downloaded. Meizu Pro 6 Review. There are also two apps for fans of reading – EBook and QQReader, as well as an app for downloading and enjoying games.

Cameras

The Meizu Pro 6 comes with a 21 MP rear camera, with a f/2.2 aperture, a laser-guided auto focus system, and a 10 LED dual tone flash, along with a 5 MP front-facing camera with a f/2.0 aperture. There is no optical image stabilization here however, which is quite disappointing to see.

Primary camera

Meizu Pro 6 features Sony’s largest camera sensor to date – the 21.16-megapixel Sony IMX230 Exmor RS one. Meizu developers have customized the entire camera assembly with the 6-element lens, focus motor and all. The shooter also benefits from phase-detection auto-focus and the auxiliary laser-focus along with an entirely new graphic engine to optimize color saturation, white balance, etc. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The lens has an f/2.2 aperture and is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Meizu Pro 6 Review. Finally, Meizu Pro 6 has an impressively designed 10-LED flash. It has the shape of ring, which encircles the laser focus unit and contains five pairs of warm and cold LED lights. They succumb to an advanced collaboration algorithm as to provide natural color rendering and temperature. The primary camera of Meizu Pro 6 makes photos with a resolution of 5344 x 4016 pixels and 4K videos (3840 x 2160) at 30 fps. The same camera sensor resides in the Zopo Speed 8, LeEco Le 2 (X620), and LeEco Le Max 2 (X820).

Secondary camera

For the front-facing camera, Meizu have opted for a 5-megapixel OmniVision OV5695 sensor coupled with a 5-element lens with an f/2.0 aperture. An interesting feature of this shooter is that every pixel is enlarged to 1.4 μm, so more light is received by the sensor, which, in theory, ultimately ends up in better photos. The camera utilizes a new ISP engine and the latest Meizu beauty algorithm – FotoNation 2.0 smart beauty. Finally, the camera unit has been placed at the upper middle of the smartphone in order to provide a natural shooting angle. It makes images with a resolution of 2560 x 1920 pixels.

Audio

Like all FlyMe apps, the music one serves as a hub with access to tons of online content – some paid, some free, some needing a prior login to your FlyMe account. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The home screen of the app shows a shortcut to online and offline playlists, charts, selection of online radios and ringtones for download. There are also links to trending music online and at the bottom of the screen the actual music player is collapsed. When you click on the Local tab at the bottom of the screen you get access to your music downloads, offline radios, your playlists and recently added music files. Meizu Pro 6 Review. The music player itself displays a cover photo of the album you’re listening to, with options to get more info about the album and the artist, to set the current song as a ring tone, etc. You may also add a song to a list of favourites and shuffle the files in your playlists. There is no special software for audio enhancement, just a normal equalizer with several pre-set music profiles (rock, jazz, classic) and an option for you to create one according to your taste.

We do our audio test by using the TASCAM US-2×2 audio interface and the RightMark Audio Analyzer software. Meizu Pro 6 has shown a Very good result in almost all parameters of the test, the only exception being the THD + Noise one, in which the device showed a Good mark. Meizu Pro 6 Review. This is the first smartphone we test that does not excel in frequency response, but its overall result is Very good. Meizu is equipped with a Cirrus Logic CS43L36 chip for H-Fi audio through earphones and a single speaker coupled with a Smart PA NXP Gen 3 class-D amplifier – TFA9911UK, located behind the speaker grille to the right of the USB Type-C port at the bottom frame of the smartphone. The speaker, actually, sounds very good.

Test

Value

RMAA rating

Frequency response (from 40 Hz to 15 kHz), dB

+0.02, -0.14

Very good

Noise level, dB (A)

-94.3

Very good

Dynamic range, dB (A)

94.3

Very good

THD, %

0.0068

Very good

THD + Noise, dB (A)

-80.3

Good

IMD + Noise, %

0.0087

Very good

Stereo crosstalk, dB

-83.8

Very good

IMD at 10 kHz, %

0.017

Very good

General performance

Very good

Stereo crosstalk

Frequency response

Noise level

Dynamic range

THD + Noise (at -3 dB FS)

Intermodulation distortion

Performance

Meizu Pro 6 runs the current top MediaTek chipset – the deca-core Helio X25, also denoted as MT6797T. It is also the first smartphone with this chipset that we review. Meizu Pro 6 Review. This system-on-chip is actually an overclocked Helio X20. It has the same tree-cluster CPU architecture with two Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 2.5GHz, four Cortex-A53 clocked at 2GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.4GHz. The quad-core Mali-T880 MP4 GPU is also overclocked to 850MHz. The three-cluster structure is created to provide more processing scenarios in order to provide better performance and power efficiency. Meizu developers have also made software optimization via FlyMe OS, which analyzes which apps are used most often and assigns in-depth core scheduling and tendering pre-acceleration, so the system decreases retarding and frame loss. Meizu Pro 6 Review. Our review unit scored 101157 in AnTuTu, which places it right below the smartphones based on the top Qualcomm chipset – Snapdragon 820 and above all others. Curious enough, the PCMark Work performance score of Meizu Pro 6 is close to that of Vernee Apollo Lite, but is lower than the one of Zopo Speed 8, both of which run Helio X20.

As long as it concerns 3DMark tests, the Pro 6 scores less than the Apollo Lite and Speed 8, which is an indicator of a weaker than expected work of the GPU. Meizu Pro 6 Review. Nevertheless, the device is fast enough and you can run most games and apps without problems, but forget about heavy graphics games and apps. Meizu Pro 6 packs 4GB of single-channel, LPDDR3 RAM clocked at 933MHz. Even though the RAM is of older generation, it is quite generous even for current standards and you won’t feel it, even if you have a number of apps running in the background. The internal memory can be either 32GB or 64GB and is not expandable. Meizu Pro 6 Review. Our review unit has 32GB of storage. The PCMark Storage score shows an amazing result, while the Androbench results show reading and writing speeds from/to memory that are on par with those of eMMC 5.1 types of internal memory. Meizu Pro 6 Review. Of 32GB, 21GB are available for the user. Meizu refers to the package of on-board sensors as to “Sensor Hub”, which includes a proximity, light, accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, barometer, and Hall sensor. There’s a LifeKit algorithm for tracking sports and health status. The fingerprint sensor, embedded in the home button is equipped with the mTouch 2.1 software. Made by GOODiX, it provides 360-degree recognition and you can store up to 5 fingerprint IDs. The sensor unlocks fast, even when the screen is off.

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